Peruvian
food is determined by the geography of the country, its climate and the
customs of their people.
There are several regions with completely different climate, that allows several different typical dishes depending on the region were people live.
By its location near the ecuator line, Peru should have a very hot tropical weather, but the reality is that the weather is defined by a big mountain chain, The Andes, which starts a couple of hundreds of kilometers in the south of Peru and ends also few kilometers in the north of Peru. This chain of mountains divides the country in three geographical regions, The Coastm next to the ocean, where the capital Lima is located, the High Lands or Andes where the old capital Cusco is located and the Amazon jungle, which occupies more than a half of all the peruvian territory.
Below there are some pictures of the different regions of Peru, that will be useful to illustrate how different kind of weather and geography it can be found. It is important to notice that different weathers implies different vegetables or animals found in those places, making of course different diet habits in the population.
1. Coast Region.
2. Sierra (Andes or high lands).
3. Amazon.
Ingredients
The mayor of the ingredients found in every peruvian dish are rice, potatoes, chichen, pork, lamb, and fish. Most of these meals include one of the different kinds of "aji", or peruvian hot pepper, which mainly are: yellow aji pepper, red aji pepper, red rocoto pepper, and many other which are imposible to translate.
Most of this kinds of pepper are difficult
to find in any other country, so it is very difficult to reproduce exactly
the same way of preparation of most of the typical dishes.
Most of those ingredients, like chicken, pork and lamb, where introduced
to Peru 500 years ago, when Spaniards came to America. Other ingredients,
like potatoes, which is maybe the most worldwide known peruvian food,
where found by the spaniards in the Peruvian Andes at that same time and
carried to Europe. There are maybe 5 very common kinds of potatoes found
in the every day peruvian dishes, and among them, the white and pink potatoes,
due to their facility to grow in most kind of weathers, are the ones which
are found in many other countries in the world.
Potato history
The earliest such remains of potatoes date to 400 B.C. They were found at archeological sites at Chiripa, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, in the city of Puno, in the east of Peru, next to the border with Bolivia.
After its discovery by Spanish conquistadors,
the potato was taken to Europe.
However, the potato's acceptance in Europe was not met with open arms.
Because the potato was not mentioned in the Bible, the clergy deemed them
unfit for the human diet.
Spanish records show that it entered Seville in 1570 and was used to feed
hospital patients in 1573. It then traveled to Italy, Germany, and into
the Orient. Later a royal Swedish edict compelled Swedes to grow the crop.
It took nearly two centuries, following the potato's introduction from
South America, before it really achieved common acceptance.
Bill Pitzer and Earle Holland wrote in the New York Times; Peru is the world's potato capital. Two-thirds of the world's potato crops originate in Europe, but the production there cannot compare with the diversity of tubers found in this South American country.
They range in color from purple to blue,
from yellow to brown. Sizes and textures vary as well. Some are smalls
as nuts; others can be as large as oranges.
The taste of different potatoes varies broadly, explaining why these vegetables
are used in all kind of dishes from appetizers to desserts.
Different peruvian dishes
The dishes peruvians use to eat can be
divided in 2 main groups, the dishes they eat in their homes every day,
and the dishes they ussually eat in restaurants, due to the long time
it take to prepare this dishes. Among this second group, there are 4 different
kind of restaurants they use to go: Cevicherias (typical sea food), Comida
Criolla (Typical peruvian food), and of course, fast food (junk food such
hamburguers, fries, etc. served in such places as Mc Donalds, Burger King,
Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Subway, and other national companies
like BEMBOS.
Daily menu
Examples of the dishes peruvians use to
eat every day are:
Arroz con Pollo ( Stuffed chicken served with green rise)
Aji de gallina
Papa rellena
Lomo Saltado
Pure (rice, smashed potatoes mostly served with lamb stew)
Spaguetti with meat sauce (almost an international version, but the meat
sauce uses hot red pepper)
Spaguetti a la Alfredo (completely an international food. The recipe is
just the same found in any recipe in internet).
Seco de frejoles (Boiled beans with a lamb stew in green sauce, always
served with white rice)
Sea Food (Cevicherias)
When a peruvian go to a restaurant, at
lunch time or in a special situation (someone's birthday, for example),
they mostly use to go to "Cevicherias". This kind of restaurants
serves all kind of sea food. The most traditional meal in Peru, the one
that at least in South America represents the Peruvian food, is the Ceviche.
This is a cold dish, which mainly consists in pieces of raw fish, cooked
by the juice of lemons, served always with onions, camote (one kind of
sweet peruvian potato) and of course, peruvian aji pepper.
Comida Criolla (Typical peruvian dishes)
Although most of the daily dishes peruvians eat are also typical dishes, there are lots of also typical dishes that requires several hours in the preparation, so in this days, this food is mostly prepared in restaurants and no in peruvian's homes, at least not in week days.
The Criolla food can be also divided by its regions in at least 5 different
kind of restaurants, each representing the typical food of the people
who live in certain regions. Each with different taste, different flours,
and different ingredients.
Some of the most typical dishes are shown below:
|
 Arroz con Pollo |
 Papas a la huancayna |
 Papa rellena |
 Escabeche de pescado |
 Adobo de cerdo |
Glossary of terms:
Aji de Gallina: shredded chicken in a spiced milk sauce.
Adobo de cerdo: Pork sauce, served with white rice.
Arroz con Pollo: Boiled chicken seasoned with a green sauce. Served always with green rice (rice cooked with albahaca)
Anticuchos: marinated grilled beef heart.
Carapulca: It is made from dried and diced potatoes with pork, steak and rice.
CauCau: Consists of tripe and diced potatoes
Cebiche: Fish or mixed shrimp with lemon. The seafood is cut into small pieces and then mixed with lemon juice and left to sit for 1hr. Next, it is mixed with onions, celery, cilantro, salt and black pepper. The dish is served cold.
Escabeche de pescado: Boiled fish seasoned with onions, aji and lemon juice
Ocopa: boiled potatoes in a seasoned sauce of cheese and nuts
Pachamanca: This is a typical dish from the desert. It consists of lamb, pork, meat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a tamale. First, one has to heat rocks on the floor using firewood. When they are hot enough, the food is placed inside a sac and buried in the hot rocks. The food has to be repeatedly checked to see when it is done because the temperature is unstable.
Papa la Huancaina: Potatoes served with a special spicy sauce, olives, lettuce and egg.
Papa Rellena: meat-stuffed potato patties.
Parihuela: Fish, shrimp crabs, mussels and octopus. Served with yuca and rice.
Rocoto Relleno: Typical dish with meat, onions, peanuts, milk and eggs, everything baked inside of the delicious rocoto (pepper), with potatoes and cheese.
Seco de frejoles: Boiled beans
with a lamb stew in green sauce, always served with white rice and raw
onions seasoned with lemon and aji.